THE beach on sunny days and Anderson Inlet on windy days have been the first choices for Inverloch holidaymakers, when they haven’t been lining up for their morning coffees or lunchtime pies.
But, even on the cooler days, there’s been plenty of cool stuff to do at Inverloch – with the emphasis on “cool” for good reason.
The Bunurong coast, at San Remo, is the place where Education Officer at the Bunurong Coast Education Centre in Inverloch, Mike Cleeland, a local palaeontologist and Melbourne Museum research associate, Lesley Kool, found the fossilised jaw of a polar dinosaur ultimately named after them, Koolasuchus Cleelandi.
The “Kool” part of the name is a play on words, for Dinosaur Dreaming co-ordinator Lesley Kool and also the prevalence of polar dinosaurs to be found along the Bass Coast. But it’s cool right, to have a dinosaur named after you!
And a lot of that cool day activity revolves around the Bunurong Environment Centre where day tours to the polar dinosaur diggings near Eagles Nest, relaxing strolls along the coast to see native animals and plants, and ‘Wildlife at Night’ tours meet and head off.
Last Wednesday, January 4, Mike Cleeland took one of his Dinosaur Discovery groups out and while everyone got a chance to see the dinosaur footprint, the 120-million-year-old trunk of a petrified tree and the location where dozens of polar dinosaurs have been identified, some of the visitors got a little more than they expected.
Young Sydneysider Sai Dhabadgonkar, who came down to the Bass Coast area with his mum, Jo, expressly to chase his dinosaur dream, will have quite a story to tell his classmates when he returns to school.
You see, young Sai, discovered a dinosaur fragment of his own.
“Sai came out with us on an earlier tour and was fortunate enough to find his own fragment of what looks to be a dinosaur fossil,” Mike Cleeland last this week.
“We won’t be able to identify it until Lesley sees it but if it’s what we think it is, it will be extracted from the rock and added to the collection.
“Could it be something new? It could easily be,” said Mike.
“There’s tremendous interest in dinosaurs of course, and we’re very fortunate to have these amazing sites here, which would not have been on the coast back 126 million years ago.
“The dinosaur footprint for example is from a medium-sized, polar theropod, a carnivore roaming in the forests of this area.
“He’s stepped in the mud and that muddy footprint has hardened into mud stone that we now find down by the sea here at Inverloch.”
Ultimately the Bass Coast polar dinosaurs will be the subject of a $40 million dinosaur trail stgretching from San Remo to Inverloch with design and feasibility work continuing through 2023 as a result of a $500,000 grant from the Victorian Government.
The Bass Coast Shire Council has already spent $1.5 million including the purchase of a 7-hectare size in Wonthaggi for the main interpretative centre.
What to get involved? Here are a few of the nature-based activities on at Inverloch:
- Thursday, January 5, 2023 from 5pm-7pm. Dinosaur Discovery at Eagles Nest. Meet at the Bunurong Environment Centre corner Ramsay Boulevard and The Esplanade, Inverloch.
- Thursday, January 5, 2023 from 8pm-110pm. Wildlife of the Night. Meet at the Bunurong Environment Centre corner Ramsay Boulevard and The Esplanade, Inverloch. The majority of Australia’s small mammals are nocturnal and the best time to see them is at night. Join Mike Cleeland, Education Officer at Bunurong Coast Education, to go on a guided night walk and search for nocturnal animals and find out what goes on out in the bush after the sun goes down. Meet at the Bunurong Environment Centre at the corner of Ramsey Bvd and The Esplanade in Inverloch. Following an introduction to the activity and a safety briefing the group will go to the Screw Creek Reserve in Inverloch for a night walk. Participants will need their own transport. Warm protective clothing may be advisable depending on the weather. Bring a torch.
- Saturday, January 7 5pm: Amazing Koolasuchus.
- Sunday, January 8 2.30pm: Native Plants and Animals.
- Sunday, January 8 5pm: Dinosaur Discovery.
- Monday, January 9 11am: Fascinating Frogs and How to Find Things.
- Monday, January 9 4pm: Dinosaur Palaeo Laboratory.
- Monday, January 9 8pm: Dancing with the Stars.
- Tuesday, January 10 11am: Cloud calling.